Resources for Worship, Leadership, and Congregational Health

April 05, 2013

Reading the Year Book

What Our Statistics Tell Us about the World We Live In

I've created a PowerPoint presentation which I hope will help us to understand why efforts at congregational re-vitalization may not have had the hoped for, long term results.

There are many ways of trying to understand the world we live in. Within the United Church, our concern for social justice means that we often use economic and political tools: empire and colonialism for example.

But when it comes to understanding the world our congregations are living in, I think it is more helpful to borrow from the world of arts, culture and community-based organizations. The particular changes in society that impact them also impact the church because we share many characteristics.

Like them, we too cannot exist without volunteers and a paying live audience / members.

And so this presentation offers a way of understanding how changes in our society have had – and are having – a dramatic impact on volunteering, belonging to communities, and attending live events.

Presentation Table of Contents

Introduction Slide 1A New Thing: Recording Technology Slide 7Another New Thing or Two: The Internet – In Our Hands Slide 10A Fourth New Thing: The Touch Screen Slide 12New Things Create New Ways of Being Human Slide 13How Does Being A Congregation Compare with These New Things? Slide 15Three Populations, Three Conversations Slide 24Impacts of Not Having a Shared Understandingof This New Technology Slide 31How Has the New Technology Impacted the Church? Slide 35Worship Attendance Decline Is Not Sustainable Slide 54Responding to Changes in the Culture Slide 65New Questions for Thinking about This Touch Screen Space Slide 69Framework for Planning the Futures of Our Congregations Slide 77Two Pearls of Wisdom Slide 83Let’s Continue the Conversation Slide 86

Presentation run time is 25 minutes.

Click here for the script that accompanies the PowerPoint presentation.